When Good Friends Go Bad (32 page)

And then Jen herself, looking across the table at Aiden conversing so easily with everybody. If she showed her true emotions, she'd be throwing herself across the table and shagging him senseless at this very moment. Five out of five sobbers. That celebrity's calculations had been spot on, maybe even too optimistic.

'Ever miss teaching, Thomas?' Georgina turned to her favourite guest and handed him the jug of cream. This evening . . . well she wasn't positive if it had been a triumph exactly, but foodwise it couldn't be faulted and apart from Jennifer, who didn't seem her usual self at all, all dirty crockery had been practically licked clean. They were now on their desserts. One thing she hadn't failed to notice was how much attention Thomas had been paying to Jennifer, the way he listened to her every word, the way he looked at her admiringly, so clearly smitten. Made her feel almost envious.

'It had its moments,' he poured the cream over his lemon meringue pie, 'but no, not really. I work in computer graphics now.'

'How interesting. We're always needing technical assistance, isn't that right, Aiden?' Georgina reached for his hand, but instead of squeezing back he rather rudely extricated himself. 'I could put in a word for you if you're ever looking for a change.'

'He has a job,' Aiden said, too impatiently for Georgina's liking. What a ghastly mood he was in tonight. On more than one occasion Georgina had noticed him giving poor Thomas slant-eyed unfriendly looks. 'You didn't say you were trolling for work, did you, Tom?'

'No. But I'll bear it in mind, Aiden.' Thomas picked up his spoon and smiled at Jennifer, thankfully impervious to insult.

'Why the career switch?' asked Nutmeg rather sullenly. And she hadn't been her usual merry self during the meal, either.

'Didn't suit,' he replied. 'Low pay, endless marking, mountains of paperwork. And maybe teaching you lot put me right off.' He laughed a little to show he was teasing.

'Couldn't take the heat? Were they such an ill-disciplined bunch then?' Aiden arched his eyebrows.

'Not so much these three,' Tom smiled at Georgina and the others, 'but some of the lads were real monsters. Of course I don't blame them, broken homes, bad parenting. Lost souls, some of them.'

'It's all changed now, anyway,' Jen said. 'School, I mean. Ofsted inspections. Smartboards instead of blackboards. Everything's interactive these days.'

'Mmm.' Georgina was thoughtful. She'd been meaning to bring it up for a while but was now the right time? She braced herself and opened her mouth, which had suddenly become extremely dry. 'Dear Nutmeg,' she reached across the table, sought out her hand and laid her own across it, 'I just want you to know, if anything ever happens to you . . . well, I, or rather we,' she glanced across at Aiden, 'will be there for Zeb.'

Meg looked startled and snatched her hand away.

'I realise I'm a poor substitute for Rowan but if you want – or rather, if anything ever happened to you, not that it will, I'd be happy to take Zeb.' She blushed and swirled her wine around her glass. 'And Chloe,' she added quickly, not wanting to leave Jennifer out, although she did have a perfectly amenable ex-husband by all accounts. 'Just the thought of any child going to an orphanage, when Aiden and I have so much, seems criminal.' She smiled brightly. There, she'd said it. Subject closed. 'Refill, anyone? I'll fetch another bottle.' She retreated to the kitchen before anyone could reply.

Some time later she was relaxing on the sofa, eyes half closed, three-quarter-empty glass of Bailey's in hand, basking in the warmth of the roaring fire while Jennifer related a recent incident concerning her daughter. Apparently her homework had been to write an adventure story and, essays not being her favourite subject, she'd put it off for ages, but for some reason once she started she really got stuck in and wrote endless pages about a cheetah and a jaguar drifting down the river on a raft, having adventures and meeting other animals. Jennifer read it and almost wept, it was so beautiful, she said, but when the teacher marked it, all he could comment on the bottom in red pen was, 'Would a tiger really be called Jerry?'

'Now that's why I home-school Zeb,' said Nutmeg. 'That's real bad, Jen.'

'I thought so too.' Jennifer snuggled her legs up into Georgina's favourite big squashy chair and accepted another top-up of Tuaca from Aiden. 'So what's your opinion, Tom, as an ex-English teacher? Am I being a pushy parent wanting to complain?'

'No, you're definitely not,' Thomas replied. 'I think her teacher was stifling her creativity. And if I'd been Chloe's dad, I'm sure I'd have felt just the same.'

Georgina noted with pleasure the way he put his hand on Jennifer's arm as he spoke. A tiny gesture, but one of support. He was so charming, Thomas. Such nice manners. She glanced across at Aiden, but he was in another world entirely.

'Yeah, and children that age, they heal incredibly fast.' Aiden suddenly threw in his pennyworth. 'Bet you in a couple of weeks, that cast is history.'

Cast? What cast?

'Jennifer didn't say anything about a cast.' Georgina slapped him gently on the arm. Had he had too much brandy or had she missed something? 'What
are
you jabbering on about?'

There was silence for a second while everyone seemed equally bemused, then Nutmeg piped up. 'Oh, didn't you hear, Georgina? Chloe broke her arm. I guess you were taking the plates out. Poor kid skidded at the scrambling track. She's in a cast, apparently. Must make it hard for her to write, eh Jen? I tell you, once Zeb fell out of this tree . . .'

Georgina half closed her eyes again and sighed.

No, this dinner party was a great success, she smiled to herself.

A truly great success.

'Enjoy yourself?' Tom asked as he drove Jen home. He was wearing chocolate leather gloves and a big sheepskin jacket, and with his dimpled chin and green eyes he reminded Jen a bit of Ben Affleck. And she wished to goodness she could fancy him instead of Aiden. But she didn't because she was a faithful old Hector. A one-man woman. A one-man-forever woman. That's what she'd worked out tonight, that she and Ollie had always been doomed because Aiden was The One. She'd often blamed the disintegration of her marriage on their hasty wedding, their age difference, Ollie's job, the move, her reluctance to have a second child, even the post-natal depression, but now she realised it had been none of those things, it had been purely, simply because her love for Aiden had never really died.

'Yeah, very much. Lovely food.'

'And a great place – Georgina's really landed on her feet.' He pulled up at a set of traffic lights and waited for them to change. 'Handsome husband, thriving business. It's brilliant that you've all remained such good friends.'

'Mmm, yes,' she said with a weary smile, not in the mood for idle chit-chat and especially not on the subject of wonderful friendships. She just wanted to go to bed, burrow under the duvet and dream of Aiden. She wondered if he'd call her later.

'I don't think you should stop looking for Rowan,' said Tom quite unexpectedly as the lights turned to green and he pulled away.

'Why not?' Jen asked, surprised.

'Because, well, you all seem to have so much fun together. And it bonds you, gives you another reason to stay in touch.'

'Mmm, yes, I suppose you're right.' Jen thought back to the evening's events. The only odd part had been not long before they left, when she'd gone outside for some fresh air. Since 'the kiss' everything had seemed more intense, the moon brighter, stars more beautiful, air cleaner and she just wanted to experience the world and all it had to offer. It was then that she saw Meg, sitting on the garden swing seat, gently swaying. Jen smiled at her old friend and went over to join her but as Meg turned her head, Jen saw from her puffy eyes that she'd been crying.

'Are you OK?' she'd said, startled.

'Yes.' Meg sniffed into a tissue. 'Totally.'

'Do you want me to stay?'

'No, Jen,' she replied almost fiercely, staring straight ahead, as if in a trance. 'I want you to go.'

It was the amount of drink probably, or maybe she'd heard something from the hospital and still wasn't ready to 'share', but there was something in Meg's manner that made Jen retreat to the warmth of the house.

Tom finally turned into her driveway, tugged on the handbrake but left the engine running.

'Would you like to come in?' Jen asked politely, crossing her fingers that he wouldn't. She felt sure nothing would happen, even though Ollie had taken Chloe back to Saul's flat when the babysitter let her down, but she wasn't sure of the rules any more. Did coffee just mean coffee or did it automatically mean more? Dating was such a long-distant memory.

Still, it would have been so easy to kiss him, the way he was smiling at her, Frank Sinatra crooning softly in the background. It was a romantic situation; the wind had died down, it was cosy in the car and a small part of her wondered what would happen if she did just let him take her there and then. Would the chemicals or hormones or whatever inside her realign themselves, and would she start seeing him in a different way? It would solve all her problems in one fell swoop.

But it was no use, she knew, in her heart of hearts, that sleeping with Tom would be a bit like sleeping with a brother, if she had one.

'Thanks, but I don't think so.' He smiled at her. 'It's getting late and I still have a fair drive home.'

'OK,' she said, relieved. 'See you, then.'

She pecked him on the cheek and walked up the driveway feeling faintly tipsy. Even as she put her key in the lock, the mobile in her bag began to vibrate and she knew instantly it was Aiden.

'So Nobby went back then?' Enid enquired.

'Don't they always?' Mrs Cartwright cast her eyes to the shop ceiling. 'Tail between his legs.'

'Ah, well,' Walter polished some miniature china teddy bears, 'wonders'll never cease.'

'Sixty years is sixty years after all,' said Mrs Cartwright. 'Fool that he was.'

'One good thing, she'll be able to torture him till the day he dies,' Enid chuckled as she placed an orange sticker on all the items that were fifteen per cent off today.

'Which if he's lucky won't be long,' Jen heard Walter mutter as he retreated into the back room.

'So what happened?' Jen was busy putting price tags on an assortment of hardly used tennis racquets that had come in. Maybe a whole family had quit at the same time?

'Seems she couldn't make a halfway good cuppa.' Mrs Cartwright shrugged. 'And she gave him gyp all the time about leaving towels higgledy-piggledy on the rail. He never realised she was pernickety.'

'They never do.' Enid moved a bundle of clothes left in the changing room and started slotting them in their rightful places on the racks. 'Live in a cloud of fantasy, these men. Think the grass is greener.'

Jen glanced through the beaded curtain and saw Walter staring into the mirror, lips moving, one hand forming the shape of a mouth, aping his wife as she continued speaking.

The door burst open and Jen gasped as Meg marched in.

'We need to talk.' Her voice was strangely stilted, her face white as a sheet. 'In private!'

'So what's the matter?' Jen followed a marching Meg as they strode through Huntsleigh park. The council had recently put in a new playground equipped with a wooden fort with rope-climbing nets and look-out towers as well as the usual swings, slides and roundabouts. On summer weekends it was packed, but today there was just one mother and toddler, both bundled up in winter coats.

Meg took a long slow draw of her cigarette, exhaled fiercely, then stopped and turned to her. 'OK, let's do it.' The smoke headed past Jen's right ear and some was blown by the strong wind straight into her eyes, but she didn't dare complain. The expression on Meg's face could have halted a freight train in its tracks. 'Shoot.'

'Pardon?'

'You know fucking what!' Meg fumed. 'You and Aiden. I know what you're doing.'

'What are we doing?' Jen gulped.

'You are so busted, lady.' Meg shook her head, then continued marching.

'What do you mean, me and Aiden?' Jen found herself tottering after her. 'There is no me and Aiden.' Her throat suddenly went Sahara, her stomach distinctly Delhi.

'Jesus, Jen.' Meg flung down her cigarette. 'The two of you only have to be in a room together and it's like a Fourth of July firework display. I'm surprised Georgie and Tom didn't notice – it's so frigging obvious.'

'I haven't slept with him, if that's what you're thinking.' Jen felt humble and ashamed. At least it was Meg, not Georgina, confronting her with her duplicity. But what if Meg were right? What if it had been obvious to all?

'You haven't?' There was a sarcastic twist to Meg's voice. 'Pull the other one, honey.'

'No.' Jen swallowed, willing her to understand. 'Well, I've lain on the bed at the same time as him and gazed at the ceiling and dreamed and talked. But nothing actually physical's happened.'

'Oh sure.' Meg gave a hollow laugh.

'Sure. We were in different houses, kind of hard to get up to much when you're miles apart.' A feeble attempt at lightening the tension. Feeble and pointless, because Jen could see Meg was in no mood for it, and suddenly she thought of all those people who had cybersex, text sex, phone sex and apparently got up to quite a lot. 'Listen.' She tried again. 'I admit we're close, but all we do is chat. Mostly about our day. Is that such a crime?'

'That's all that's happened?'

'Chat and text and . . . all right, one kiss up on the ridge,' she admitted.

'Where's the goddamned ridge?' Meg thundered, as if it might be some body part she hadn't heard of.

'Above the park. Next to the heath. Round the corner from the beacon.' If she kept stalling her with directions, she might be let off more lightly. 'Up there.' She pointed to a nearby hill.

'He's been driving over
here
to see you?' Now Meg looked even more shocked. 'I'm over-fucking-whelmed.'

'Only once. Well twice actually . . . well, no, three times, but the first time was dropping my phone off and the second time Georgina kind of sent him and the third . . .'

'Enough.' She curled her nose up like she'd just encountered a bad smell.

'Oh, Meg, we kissed one evening, that's all, the rest was just talking.'

'Worse than I thought,' she spat as she strode fast along the gravel path, past the flower beds so barren now in the winter cold.

'What do you mean?'

'Emotional infidelity. I hoped it was purely a sex thing, but you're in love.'

'Rubbish!' Jen snapped defensively, sorry now that she hadn't tried to deny the whole thing. 'We're old friends. It's nothing. Back off, why don't you? Give me a break.'

'Don't you get pissy with me. I'm just telling you, he's no good for you,' Meg carried on. 'Or anyone. Definitely not worth wrecking your friendship with Georgina. Even years back, when you were hooked up together, he was a scummy two-timing bastard.'

They were heading for the lake now. A pair of moorhens skittered towards the water at their approach. Jen looked at Meg in outrage.

'He was not,' she said furiously. 'Why would you say that?'

Meg kicked a stone along the path. 'All the time he was seeing you, he was still sleeping with Astrid.'

Jen stopped. She couldn't believe her ears. She'd never thought Meg would stoop that low.

'It wasn't like that,' she said, wanting to make Meg understand. 'They'd just broken up. She was still clinging to Aiden like a leech.'

'You were
so
naive, Jen. He used to bring her over to us most week nights when you were at home studying. Don't tell me they were,' she put on a mock English accent, ' "just dreaming and talking". Clover let them sleep over in the guest room and our house had thin walls. He told Herb you were "sweet but oh so young".' She took another drag of her cigarette and gave Jen a shrewd assessing look. 'You didn't really think he was staying celibate for you, did you?'

Could she believe her? Could you ever believe a thing Meg said? But she felt hollow suddenly, all her certainty drained away. 'So why didn't you say something?' she challenged angrily. 'You were meant to be my friend.'

'Maybe because I knew it wouldn't have done a darned bit of good? Sure, I was mad at him and I used to bust his balls about it, but what else could I do? You know if I said the slightest thing against him you took it as a personal insult. You'd never have believed me.'

'And I don't believe you now.' Jen whirled round and started walking back. 'You're a phoney.'

Meg ignored the insult. 'He probably knows Georgina's about to chuck him out and is trying to feather his nest somewhere else. Looking for a soft landing, he saw your cushy pad.'

It wasn't her cushy pad, she thought, and then she took in what Meg had said. 'What make you think Georgina wants to chuck him out?' Her heart kicked at the prospect.

They were attracting glances from a few dog-walkers who were congregated together chatting while their pooches scampered around. Meg gave her a look that saw right through her.

'Well, hell, I would if I were her. Face it, Jen. He was a dickweed then and he's a dickweed now.'

'I'd trust Aiden any day over you!' Jen's heart rebelled in anguish against everything she'd heard. 'You were jealous of us then and you're jealous of us now. I saw Beidelbaum's email. It's all one big web of lies with you. From that nasty bit of blackmail you've got going on to that poxy bloody angel and pretending you give a damn about me, Georgina or Rowan, when we all know that Meg Lennox only looks out for Meg Lennox!'

Meg stared at her intently again.

'Yeah, that's right, baby,'
her voice took on a strange low husky tone.
'Do it like that. That feels so-o-o good. Yeah, baby, you're the best. Are you hot for me? Do you feel the magic?'

Jen felt the colour drain from her face, the cold sweep her entire body.

'You bitch,' she croaked. 'Stay away from me. I never want to see you again!'